Fujifilm’s 3D Digicam Almost Ready for Stores

If Fujifilm had any kind of marketing nous, it’d license the design of the classic red plastic Viewmaster 3D viewer and put its new camera’s gubbins inside.

Why? Because the camera in question is a 3D shooting, dual-lens camera which, although somewhat cute in a robot-faced kind of way is also rather dull, especially in comparison to he iconic, fire-red toy.

But as soft, sappy hippies say about ugly people, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And Fuji has squeezed some rather interesting features into its pedestrian black box. Although the specs have yet to be finalized, it looks like Fuji will have the first consumer level 3D digicam on the market. It works in the usual way: Two lenses, spaced to the average distance between human eyes, record slightly different, simultaneous views of the same scene. You can do the same by bolting two cameras together.

The big problem with 3D has also always been with us. Viewing images requires sending those two images to separate eyes, from where the brain could do its built in magic and combine them into a scene with distance information. Fuji will offer two options. One is a special LCD frame which can display the images. The other is an actual photograph which has a plastic lens on the top layer to direct the correct image part to the correct eye.

A gimmick? Hell yes, and an expensive one too. Fujifilm reckons that the 10MP camera will cost the equivalent of around $600, the frame “several hundred dollars” and the photos – well, the photos, Fujifilm boss says Takeshi Higuchi, will need to come in at under $5 each or “it probably won’t sell.”

Pushing new tech is a good thing, especially in the world of digital cameras where the basic work of mimicking film is now all but done. But 3D is possibly too niche to support a market, and will remain the preserve of enthusiasts who are happy to roll their own solutions. In fact, the only really successful, mass market 3D product we can think of is the humble Viewmaster. Are you listening, Fujifilm?